RAF crew eject in Tornado incident

A Tornado crew have been forced to eject from their aircraft during an incident at an RAF base.

The two personnel were taken to hospital following the incident at RAF Lossiemouth in Moray just after 5pm on Thursday.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "An incident has occurred involving an aircraft at Lossiemouth. The good news is that the crew ejected safely and are on route to hospital."

The MoD said it was too early to provide any details of the crew's condition or the circumstances of the incident.

It is understood the crew encountered a problem on landing the aircraft. A Tornado jet went down in the sea off the west coast of Scotland on January 27.

The crew, also from RAF Lossiemouth, ejected from the plane before it landed in the waters at Loch Ewe, near Gairloch, Wester Ross.

An MoD spokeswoman said later: "The crew is in hospital where they are undergoing routine medical checks."

An inquiry into the incident will begin on Friday.

RAF Lossiemouth, on the Moray Firth coast, is home to three squadrons of Tornado GR4s. The Tornado GR4 is a two-seat attack aircraft, capable of delivering a variety of weapons and reaching a maximum altitude of 50,000ft (15,240m).

In July 2009 a pilot and navigator were killed when their Tornado crashed into a hillside in Argyll. The aircraft was a RAF Leuchars-based Tornado F3 on a routine flight.